Apparatus for loading bulk material into a ship&#39;s hold



Sept. 8, 1953 I B. A. ROSE ETAL APPARATUS FOR LOADING BULK MATERIAL INTO A SHIPS HOLD 3 Shets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 2, 1951 INVENTORS Een/Y/kAJPOS 2/ Bo/-/2 s /V. 050 at APPARATUS FOR LOADING BULK MATERIAL INTO A 'SHIPS HOLD Filed Feb. '2, 1951 Se t. 8, 1953 B. A. ROSE EIAL 3.Sheets-Sheet 2 Se t. 8, 1953 a. A. ROSE arm. 2,651,423

' APPARATUS FOR LOADING BULK MATERIAL INTO A SHIPS HOLD Filed Feb. 2, 1951 V v 5 Sheets-Sheet s INVENTORS Ben/71.9 A. Pose, .Bo/VIS M 060 ms-A: ,,...;L,%-1 M Patented Sept. 8, 1953 ArPARA'rUsf oR LOADING BULK MATERIAL mm A sHIPs noLu;

Bennie A. Rose, Forest Hills, and Boris M; Osojnaik, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignors' to Heyl & Patterson, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa.,' a corporation 7 of Pennsylvania Application February 2, 1951, SeriaiNo. 209,152

This invention relates to apparatus for loading material into a receptacle, particularly in the case of loading material in the formof frangible lumps, such as coal, into a ships hold or the like.

It has heretofore been conventional to unload coal from a railway car into a ships hold by moving the loaded car into an elevated position and then dumping the coal out of it into the upper end of a loading chute with a special retarder mechanism to ease the coal down the upper end of the chute to prevent lumps of coal from being smashed as the coal is poured into the upper end of the chute. This wastes power in raising and lowering the coal car and dumping an entire carload into a chute makes the chute ponderous, requires a large amount ofv coal to be emptied before the chute can be retracted for the next discharge operation, and requires a large pan in the upper end of the chute to accommodate a full carload of coal.

In accordance with our invention a loading boom is used in conjunction with a variable rate delivery belt at the upper end of the boom and an adjustable gate at the lower end of the boom so that the boom may be kept full of coal or the like while it is discharging into a. ship's hold. This eliminates a free fall through any substantial part of the boom and thereby minimizes breakage of coal, and thecoalheld back in the boom serves the added useful purpose of supplying a large force for expelling the coal from the bottom of the boom. The delivery. belt extends in any necessary number of sections back to a hopper having a suitable gate or equivalent mechanism for releasing coal onto the delivery belt in a layer of desired depth. The hopper may be disposed below a track at the normal levelof a railway car so that the car mayvdischarge into the hopper without having to be elevated prior to discharge.

Other details, objects and advantages of the invention will become apparentas the following description of a present preferred embodiment thereof and present preferred method of practicing the same proceeds. In the accome panying drawings we have shown for purposes of illustration a present preferred embodiment of the invention, in which Figure 1 is a partially sectioned view of coal-j loading apparatus in accordance with the invention discharging into a ships hold;

Figure 2 is a top view of the apparatus n ure 1;

Figure 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of apshown 3 Claims. (01. 214 14) paratus' according to the invention transferring coal from a railway car into a ships hold;

- Figure 4 is an enlarged detailed side elevation of the lower portion of the loading chute shown i'n'Figure'l;

Figure 5 is an elevation of a broken away portion of the loading chute taken from the top left'of Figure 4; and

Figure 5A is an elevation of the brokenaway discharge endof the'chute, taken from the bot-' tom right of Figure 4. r

Referring now more particularly to the drawings and considering first the form of structure shown in Figures 1 and 2, there is provided a loading tower II) on a loading dock l l. The hold l2 of a ship moored alongside the dock II is shown with ahatch opening 13 for receivinga loading chute I4. The chute l4 comprises three major sections, the top or pansection [5 being pivotally mounted at its upper end on the tower [0 for swinging movement about a horizontal pin 16, the intermediate or telescoping section "being pivotally connected at its upper end to the lower end of the section l5 by coaxial connecting pins I8 (Figure 4), and the lowermost or trimmer section [9 being supported for swiveling movement about the lower end of the section H. The upper end of the pan section [5 is of'enlarged' cross section relative to the lower end of that section, the telescoping section I! comprises a series of elements adapted to telescope-together to reduce or increase the length of the intermediate section l1, and the lower end of the trimmer section l9 has an outlet opening controlled by a gate 20. The gate 20 swings down to close and up to open, and is operated by a motor 2| mounted on the trimmer section l9 and connected to the gate 20 by crank arm 22 and link 23. Sheaves 24 and 25 mounted at the lower end of telescoping section H, and sheaves 26 and 2'! mounted on opposite sides of the pan section l5, support cables for swinging the telescoping section I! relative to pan section Hi. The cables passing over sheaves 24 and '26 are operated by a motor 26' mounted on the tower l0, and the cables passing'over sheaves 25 and 2 1 are operated by a motor 27 mounted on the tower l0. Sheaves 28 mounted on the pan section, I 5 and sheaves 29 mounted at the top of the tower 10 support cables for swinging the pan section [5 about the pin I6. Thecables passing over sheaves 28 are operated by a motor 28' mounted on the tower ID. A pair of motors 30 mounted at the lower end of telescoping section all is connected to swivel trimmer section i9 about telescoping section l1. Sheaves 31 mounted on sections 15 and I! support power and control cables for motors 2| and 30. A clear passage extends through the whole chute H from the upper end of pan section l5 to the outlet controlled by the gate 20. This. passage is substantially enclosed all the way except. that the upper end of the telescoping section 11 extends around and is spaced from the lower end of the pan section [5 to facilitate pivotal movement of the section I! relative to section #5.

A delivery belt 32 extends between pulleys 33 and 34 mounted on tower Ill, with the pulley 34 mounted adjacent the top of therpassage. through pan section [5. The belt 32. extends around a take-up pulley 35 and drive pulley 38 connected to be driven by a motor 31. Another belt 38 driven by a motor 39 extends around a pulley 40 mounted on the tower ID to discharge onto the belt 32 at its lower end adjacent the pulley 33. The other end of the belt 38 isv not shown in Figures 1 and 2 but is illustrated diagrammatically in Figure 3, where it is shown receiving coal from a hopper i i (any desired number of intermediate belts may be interposed in practice between the belts 32 and 38). A distributing mechanism is connected to the bottom of the hopper .41 and the hopper is mounted beneath rails 43 to receive; coal from a car 44. The. distributing mechanism 42 has an adjustable gate 45 adapted to release a continuous stream of coal onto the belt 38. The motors 37 and 39 driving the belts 37.- and 38 (and any motors driving any additional intermediate belts) are connected to a control unit in an operating cab 46 on the tower l so that these motors may be simultaneously adjusted to run at corresponding speeds for the purpose of control ling the rate of delivery from the hopper 4t into the loading chute M.

The preferred operation of the apparatus is to adjust the length of the telescoping section I! so that its upper end will be positioned at substantially the level of the top of a shipshold to be loaded, and this is done either while the chute is empty orwhile the chute is. full of coal by opening the gate 20 while section 17- is being shortened. This adjustment allows the. trimmer section [9 to be swung from one side of the ship's hold to the other in spite of the, hatch opening; l3 at the top of the hold being of less length in the same direction (Figure 1). The gate 29 is. closed while the chute i4 is initially filled. with coal and then the motor 2i is operated from, the cab 46 by suitable connecting power and control lines to discharge coal at steady or variable rates, as desired. The, delivery belt dischargfi motors are simultaneously adj sted. to keep coal. flewing into the chute M atthe same rate that, it is released through the gate 20, and this has the combined advantage of keeping the top level or the coal in the pan section. l! close to the discharge point of the belt 32 So that C63 s not broken as it falls from the belt 32.. and also. 0i maintaining a large head of: coal to. push coal through the chute l4 and out, past the. gate 20 when the gate is open. The. enlar ed upper end of the section 15 adjacent the discharge point of the belt 32 allows flexibility of operation when gaps occur in the continuous layer of coal on the belt 32, such as result when the hopper M periods ically becomes empty. When a ship's hold has been fully loaded the chute Hi is drawn intoits extreme vertical position (shown in dotted lines in Figure 1).

While we have shown and described a present preferred embodiment of the invention and have illustrated a present preferred method of practicing the same it will be recognized that the invention is not limited thereto but may be otherwise variously embodied and practiced within the scope of the following claims.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for loading bulk material into a ships hold or the like comprising a supporting structure generally upright hollow delivery means through which bulk material being loaded passes downwardly, the delivery means having an open. upper end, the delivery means being dwingably supported by the supporting structure with its open upper end disposed below the top of the supporting structure, the delivery means having a discharge opening at its lower end, an adjustable control gate for the discharge opening. controlling the rate of passage of bulk material out of the bottom of the delivery means, a conveyor for conveying bulk material into the open upper end of the deli-very means, a variable speed drive for the. conveyor, the. portion of the delivery means at and for a substantial distance downwardly from the open upper end thereof being of relatively very great transverse crosssection as compared with the maximum transverse cross-section of the discharge opening and tapering to smaller cross-section toward the discharge opening; so that bulk material filling the delivery means moves downwardly very slowly at the. transversely enlarged upper portion thereof as compared with the rate of passage oi the bulk material out ofthe bottom of the delivery means, an operating station on the supporting structure positioned to afford an 011-.- erator at the station an unobstructed view down into the transversely enlarged open upper end of the delivery means. and control means for the variable. speed conveyor drive, the. control means; being; disposed at. the operating station enabling the operator while watching the relatively very slow downward movement. of the bulk material at. the transversely enlarged upper portion of the delivery means to. operate the control means to control the speed of" the. conveyor and thereby maintain approximately constant the level of bulk material in the delivery means and avoid degradation of. the bulk material which might occur due to its falling freely.

2. Apparatus for loading bulk material into a ship's hold or the. like comprising a supporting structure, generally upright hollow delivery means through which bulk material'being loaded passes downwardly, the delivery means having an open upper end, the delivery means. being swingabl'y supported by the supporting structure with its open upper end disposed below the top of the supporting structure, the delivery means having a discharge opening at its lower end, an adjustable control gate for the discharge opening controlling the rate of passage of bulk materialout of the bottom of the delivery means, a plurality of conveyors in series for conveying bulk material from a source into the open upper end of the delivery means, variable speed driving means for the conveyors, the portion of the delivery means at and for a substantial distance downwardly from the open upper end thereof being of relatively very great transverse cross section as compared with the maximum transverse cross section of the discharge opening and tapering to smaller cross section toward the discharge opening so that bulk material filling the delivery means moves. downwardly very'slowly at the transversely enlarged upper portion thereof as compared with the rate of passage of the bulk material out of the bottom of the delivery means, an operating station of the supporting structure positioned to afiord an operator at the station an unobstructed view down into the transversely enlarged open upper end of the delivery means and control means for the variable speed driving means, the control means being disposed at the operating station enabling the operator while watching the relatively very slow downward movement of the bulk material at the transversely enlarged upper portion of the delivery means to operate the control means to control the speed of the conveyors and thereby maintain approximately constant the level of bulk material in the delivery means and avoid degradation of the bulk material which might occur due to its falling freely.

3. Apparatus for loading bulk material into a ships hold or the like comprising a supporting structure, generally upright hollow delivery means through which bulk material being loaded passes downwardly, the delivery means having an open upper end, the delivery means being swingably supported by the supporting structure with its open upper end disposed below the top of the supporting structure, the delivery means having a discharge opening at its lower end, an adjustable control gate for the discharge opening controlling the rate of passage of bulk material out of the bottom of the delivery means, conveyor means for conveying bulk material into the open upper end of the delivery means, hopper means for delivering bulk material to the conveyor means, a variable speed drive for the conveyor means, the portion of the delivery means at and for a substantial distance downwardly from the open upper end thereof being of relatively very great transverse cross section as compared with the maximum transverse cross section of the discharge opening and tapering to smaller cross section toward the discharge opening so that bulk material filling the delivery means moves downwardly very slowly at the transversely enlarged upper portion thereof as compared with the rate of passage of the bulk material out of the bottom of the delivery means, an operating station on the supporting structure positioned to afford an operator at the station an unobstructed view down into the transversely enlarged open upper end of the delivery means and control means for the variable speed drive, the control means being disposed at the operating station enabling the operator while watching the relatively very slow downward movement of the bulk material at the transversely enlarged upper portion of the deliverymeans to operate the control means to control the speed of the conveyor means and thereby maintain approximately constant the level of bulk material in the delivery means and avoid degradation of the bulk material which might occur due to its falling freely.

BENNIE A. ROSE. BORIS M. OSOJNAK.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,325,704 Scott Dec. 23, 1919 1,752,410 Adams Apr. 1, 1930 1,852,385 Weigert Apr. 5, 1932 2,215,736 Jones Sept. 24, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 806,266 France Dec. 11, 1936 

